The Ghost of You
by Bailation
Summary: Hermione's feeling of uneasiness for Ron's safety when he leaves for his latest mission leads her into a situation that neither she nor he could have ever imagined. Song-fic based on "The Ghost of You" by My Chemical Romance.


_I never said I'd lie and wait forever  
>If I died, we'd be together<br>I can't always just forget her  
><em>_But she could try_

The bright, morning sun shone through the thin, white curtains, causing the lanky figure of Ron Weasley to stir and squint at the dazzling light. He grinned; he loved mornings like these. He rolled over onto his right side and saw the one thing that truly made him love sunny mornings.

Hermione's back was to him, but he could tell she was still asleep by the sounds of her breathing. He wrapped both arms around her and kissed her temple, burying his face in her sweet-smelling hair. He loved everything about her, from the way she knew everything there was to know to her beautiful brown eyes. He wouldn't trade one thing about Hermione, even the qualities that drove him mad. He knew that those qualities only made him love her more.

She was stirring in his arms, turning her head to gently kiss his shoulder. She sighed, stroking his arms with the tips of her fingers and causing him to shiver delightfully. "I don't want to go to work today," she said. "Can't we call in sick and lay in bed all day?"

"Sure," said Ron, feeling like that was the best idea in the world. However, she looked round at him like he was mad.

"I was joking, Ron," she said. "We can't do that…"

"Why not?" he asked. He bent his head to whisper in her ear. "C'mon, Hermione. Why would you want to get up when you have me to keep you warm?" He shot her his best Ron Weasley grin, which he knew she couldn't resist. She smirked and turned away. "Fine, but just for today."

His grin grew wider as he kissed her cheek. "I love you, Hermione," he whispered in her ear, tightening his arms around her waist. He felt her move more beside him as she wiggled further into his embrace. She ran her hands up and down his freckly arms as she responded, "I love you too, Ron."

_At the end of the world  
>Or the last thing I see<br>You are  
>Never coming home<br>Never coming home  
>Could I? Should I?<br>And all the things that you never ever told me  
>And all the smiles that are ever ever...<br>Ever..._

A week later, the flat of Ron and Hermione Weasley was in chaos. A mass breakout in Azkaban had kept the Auror Department quite busy for the last few days, and Ron had volunteered their flat as a meeting place for the Aurors, as well as the Order, which had stayed recruited after the war for times like these. They were planning for a new mission to round up the escaped Death Eaters.

Aurors were arriving and leaving through their fireplace at every moment, and all the while, Hermione stood off to the side with a frown etched across her face. It was wonderful that Ron and Harry had decided to be Aurors, but she had chosen a different path, still within the Ministry. She was Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and perfectly happy with her job. However, when Ron brought his work home, she did tend to get slightly agitated.

It was one thing that strangers were coming and going through her fireplace, but it also made her feel slightly left out. From when she was eleven years old, she, Harry, and Ron were a team who looked out for each other in the most deadly of situations. Now, the two men were off fighting Death Eaters without her, while she stayed behind freeing house-elves. She never exactly wanted to be an Auror, but it worried her to no end that Ron and Harry were facing Death on a daily basis.

_Get the feeling that you're never_  
><em>All alone and I remember now<em>  
><em>At the top of my lungs in my arms<br>__She dies  
>She dies<em>

She knocked on the door that led into the room where the Aurors were plotting their next move. Silence was heard from inside and she took this as a good sign. She tentatively opened the door, and poked her head in. Harry, who had been speaking, looked up, clearly annoyed. "Hermione, can this wait?"

"It can't, Harry," she said calmly, fixing him with a reproachful frown. "I need to speak with Ron." Her eyes rested on her husband, who sat next to Harry, looking surprised.

Harry was about to refuse her request, but the booming voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt cut him off. "Of course, Mrs. Weasley." He smiled at her as Harry only looked exasperated. She smiled back as Ron got up and followed her out the door. Being one third of the team who defeated the Dark Lord, Hermione got away with more than usual when it came to the Auror Department.

Once in their living room and far out of earshot from the Aurors in their kitchen, Hermione turned to Ron, who wore an expression of concern and anxiety. "What is it, Hermione?"

She stared at a space on the floor, knowing exactly what he had asked, but not quite sure how to answer him. He stepped closer to her and tilted her chin up to meet his eyes. "Hermione? What's wrong?"

She paused for a moment more before answering, decided to be completely blunt with him. "I don't think you should go on the mission."

"Why?" There was a certain hurt in his eyes that told Hermione that by that simple statement, she had brought back a childhood of insecurities in Ron.

_He thinks I think he's not good enough. _She hastened to correct his thoughts. "I just have this horrible feeling, that's all. Its telling me that something's going to happen to you, something bad."

Ron frowned. "Hermione, I've been on loads of these missions before –"

"I know, and you're risking your life every time!" she burst out. She shook her head and looked down at her feet. "I've gone along with your career choice, Ron. I've been supportive all along, but if I'm being honest, I worry about both you and Harry every time you leave for one of those godforsaken missions. Usually I just ignore my feelings, but I can't this time, Ron. Something's going to happen, I can feel it –"

Two strong arms wrapped around her body, embracing her into a warm torso she knew to be Ron's. His soft whisper entered her ear as she squeezed him back,

"Nothing's going to happen, Hermione. I promise."

She gripped the back of his jacket in her fists, willing herself not to cry and willing him to never let go. "You can't know that."

He sighed into her hair. "I know. But I can try to promise to avoid trouble."

"How?"

"I'll use Harry as a human shield."

Hermione gave a watery laugh, tears now pouring down her face. He gently kissed her forehead, and gave her one last squeeze. "I love you, Hermione."

_At the end of the world  
>Or the last thing I see<br>You are  
>Never coming home<br>Never coming home  
>Could I? Should I?<em>

The night was blacker than usual, the moon gone from sight behind the skeletal trees. Hermione followed the Auror party quietly under Harry's Invisibility Cloak, which she had stolen only hours before. She knew she would pay for it later, especially since Harry used his Cloak on every mission, but this was much more important.

She was tired of being left behind while Ron and Harry went out into the world to risk their lives. She couldn't let the feeling of danger and caution for Ron run its course, because it was now stronger than ever, and she knew it meant something horrific was about to happen to him. Therefore, she couldn't allow him to fight tonight. This was the first time in her life where her instinct overpowered her logic, and she wasn't quite sure she could trust it, but she was sure she had to come along so she didn't make the biggest mistake of her life.

The Aurors were camped out in tents in the Forest of Dean, where they had had sources tell them that Death Eaters were prowling the area. They had Disapparated outside of the forestry, but Hermione had heard their plans when Ron had returned back to the meeting earlier that day. George had given her a very good price on Extendable Ears, and she wasn't about to waste her money.

She hid behind a tree (despite the Cloak, she still felt exposed) and watched over the tent she knew Ron and Harry were camped in. She began to think of the days when Ron was home, when they would take off from work and lie in bed for days on end…she smiled and yawned as she watched the Ron-shaped figure move around inside the tent…just to see him move made her feel ecstatic that he was alive…

_And all the things that you never ever told me  
>And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me<br>Never coming home  
>Never coming home<br>Could I? Should I?  
>And all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me<br>__For all the ghosts that are never gonna catch me_

Hermione woke with a start, wincing as she moved her back. She realized she had fallen asleep on a rock and lost all means of watching Ron and Harry when she had begun daydreaming. She shuddered to think of what the Aurors' site could look like now after she had. She had no idea how long she had even been asleep. Hermione rearranged the Cloak around her and slowly turned around, peering around the tree. To what she saw, her mouth dropped open in shock.

The tents that the Aurors had previously set up were tore down, ripped up, and trampled on. Hermione only faltered for a moment before rushing forward to investigate the scene. Lighting her wand, she began looking around on the ground for bodies. She found two unconscious Death Eaters fallen spread-eagle on the ground, and decided it was best to leave them that way. Tears were springing to her eyes when the presence of Harry or Ron did not appear.

"_Expelliarmus!"_

Her ears pricked as she heard a man's voice in the distance. The sound of yelling and the roaring of wands became more apparent as she looked around, trying to find the sources.

But they were coming to her, and she was able to just dive away out of the range of a spell shot by a Death Eater as the rest of the Aurors and Death Eaters came bounding out of the forest, trampling over the tents once more as they shot spell after spell.

Hermione was able to recognize Ron and Harry in the dim light of her wand as they dueled two different Death Eaters. Then she felt it, that feeling that told her something traumatic was about to happen, it reappeared in the pit of her stomach, and she figured out exactly what she was supposed to do. She pointed her wand at the Death Eater who was dueling Ron, thinking of which spell to cast upon him…

_If I fall  
>If I fall<br>__Down_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_

The green light that issued from the Death Eater's wand missed Ron by inches, and hit one of the Aurors behind him instead. Ron stared at his dead companion and rage consumed him. He had met the man when he was in Auror training, and had become good friends with him. Now, only anger and fury controlled what Ron did next.

He aimed at the Death Eater who had killed his Auror friend and shouted, "_Avada Kedavra!"_

The Death Eater dived aside, but the green light did not pass on. It hit thin air, outlining what seemed to be a person who Ron could not see. He looked curiously at the area it had hit, but as he turned to face the Death Eater once more, someone else yelled, _"Stupefy!"_ and the Death Eater fell to the ground unconscious.

Ron didn't look round to see who had saved him; instead he approached the area he had hit with the Killing Curse. He felt around with his foot, prodding the ground until he hit something solid. His heart racing, he knelt down and felt the familiar material of an Invisibility Cloak. Ron's heart jumped to his throat as he realized what he was about to see.

_At the end of the world  
>Or the last thing I see<br>You are  
>Never coming home<br>Never coming home  
>Never coming home<br>Never coming home_

He tore the Cloak off and felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. He backed away from the body, hoping and willing it not to be true. He had promised both himself and her that he would never hurt her, that he would never allow anyone else to hurt her. But the scene in front of him contradicted that promise completely, and it had to be a lie…

He approached the body and moved her hair, seeing her face for the first time. Her eyes were wide with shock as she had looked upon the last scene of her life; the green light coming toward her as she was on the receiving end of her husband's Killing Curse. Her skin was already glowing in the night with Death's pale skin.

"Hermione…" Ron choked out, tears pouring down his face in sorrow, his hands reaching out to stroke her hair. Why had she done this? How could she have misread her own instincts? He knew why she had come; she had been worried about him. But instead of saving him, she had walked herself into a deathtrap that had ended her life. The irony of the situation made Ron sick to his stomach.

He wanted to kill himself. _He had killed his own wife_. And it had been a mistake, a stupid mistake! He would never live without the guilt eating away at his already-broken heart…

Ron gently took her into his arms, feeling as if he didn't even deserve to do this simple act, and embraced her body to his own, feeling, for the first time ever, absolutely nothing in return. Not her warm arms around his own torso, not her gentle kisses on his face.

And what scared him the most was that he would never feel any of her ever again. He had never felt more furious, filled with sorrow, remorseful and empty.

As the spells shot around him as the duels continued, Ron, holding his wife's body in his arms, realized that her soul had left her body, and his had left with it.

_And all the things that you never ever told me  
>And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me<br>Never coming home  
>Never coming home<br>Could I? Should I?  
>And all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me<br>For all the ghosts that are never gonna…_


End file.
